Social Media Marketing (SMM): Focuses on branding, reputation enhancement and enhanced customer service via social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Smaller SMM channels include Digg, Delicious, Wikipedia, StumbleUpon and MySpace. Social networks are visited by a collective total of over one-billion people. Thus, even the simplest marketing efforts, like paid advertising, reach potentially large audiences. The growth of video marketing is presenting a unique opportunity for brands like yours. As consumers continue to prefer video to other forms of content, they’re now expecting brands of every size and in every industry to connect with them using video. Platforms are increasingly prioritizing video content, and even new devices like phones and tablets are more video ready than ever before. That means you have to take full advantage of this amazing marketing tool to be competitive. The longer you wait, the more customers you’ll lose.
Watch time and view-through rate are two of the most important metrics to measure engagement. These are the most absolute numbers that’ll give you an idea of how engaging your content is. Less absolute numbers include lifts in favorability and brand interest. You can also use things like comments and shares to measure engagement when you post your video on social media.
Although this video is about a man who adopts and raises a puppy, it's not meant to be inspiring -- it's meant to be entertaining. And entertaining it is: BuzzFeed did a great job writing a script that takes all the classic puppy stories you've heard (puppy chewing on the furniture; puppy keeping you up all night) and turns them into a delightful story of a man and his dog spending time together.
The first step in creating your video strategy is outlining your video’s goals. Ideally, you’ll want to create a video forExtended ArticleThe Right Video Content for Your Marketing FunnelBefore you embark on creating a video marketing strategy, it’s important to know what stage of the marketing funnel you’re targeting. This is important… Read More every stage of the marketing funnel. But, initially, you’ll have to decide which stage is the most important to target.
If you are serious about improving search traffic and are unfamiliar with SEO, we recommend reading this guide front-to-back. We've tried to make it as concise as possible and easy to understand. There's a printable PDF version for those who'd prefer, and dozens of linked-to resources on other sites and pages that are also worthy of your attention.
In the 2000s, with more and more Internet users and the birth of iPhone, customers started searching products and making decisions about their needs online first, instead of consulting a salesperson, which created a new problem for the marketing department of a company. In addition, a survey in 2000 in the United Kingdom found that most retailers had not registered their own domain address.[12] These problems made marketers find the digital ways for market development.
Find a Location. Decide on a spot to record. If you can’t go to a professional studio, try to pick a quiet room away from distracting external sounds like sirens, opening and closing doors, and people talking on the phone. Read your script aloud, and pay attention to the room’s acoustics. Does your voice echo or sound muffled? If so, consider recording in a different space or adding furniture to fill in the room.

Another good news is that your videos don’t have to be perfect. It’s the content that matters! Latest research shows that users are mostly put off by videos that don’t explain the product or service clearly enough. Low quality and poor design didn’t matter nearly as much. So it’s fair to say that video is like pizza – when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good!

A compelling call to action (CTA). Whether you want a visitor to make a purchase, give you their contact information, or download a file, the CTA should be easy to spot and optimized to get the most conversions. Will your mailing list get more sign-ups with a button that says “subscribe now,” “register today,” or “sign me up?” You may need to do some testing to find out.
Going into network marketing? Understand that if you're not close to the top of the food chain there, your ability to generate any serious amount of income will be limited. Be wary of the hype and the sales pitches that get you thinking that it's going to work the other way. Simply understand that you're going to have to work hard no matter what you pick to do. Email marketing? Sure. You can do that. But you'll need a massive and very targeted list to make any dent.
There are several ways to increase your social media video subscribers. Use video SEO to make it easier for target audiences to find your videos. Include attractive custom thumbnails to make your videos more enticing. Use end cards and annotations to include calls to action asking viewers to subscribe. You can also promote your videos on your website, landing pages or blog posts. And you can use influencer marketing to spread the word about your video content and gain new subscribers that way.
In this new world of digital transparency brands have to be very thoughtful in how they engage with current and potential customers. Consumers have an endless amount of data at their fingertips especially through social media channels, rating and review sites, blogs, and more. Unless brands actively engage in these conversations they lose the opportunity for helping guide their brand message and addressing customer concerns.
An omni-channel approach not only benefits consumers but also benefits business bottom line: Research suggests that customers spend more than double when purchasing through an omni-channel retailer as opposed to a single-channel retailer, and are often more loyal. This could be due to the ease of purchase and the wider availability of products.[24]
Online marketing is the practice of leveraging web-based channels to spread a message about a company’s brand, products, or services to its potential customers. The methods and techniques used for online marketing include email, social media, display advertising, search engine optimization, and more. The objective of marketing is to reach potential customers through the channels where they spend time reading, searching, shopping, or socializing online.
Customers are often researching online and then buying in stores and also browsing in stores and then searching for other options online. Online customer research into products is particularly popular for higher-priced items as well as consumable goods like groceries and makeup. Consumers are increasingly using the Internet to look up product information, compare prices, and search for deals and promotions.[21]
For content to stand out, businesses must differentiate their material from other companies, especially competitors. Some methods that have worked are innovative series that develop fictional characters or storylines centered around a specific product. Other campaigns serve essentially as commercials for a business, such as Red Bull’s campaign that features extreme sports athletes, or serve as how-to’s that establish thought leadership.
Mini-documentaries Extended ArticleAnatomy of a Mini-Doc: What It Is and How to Knock It Out of the Park“Documentary” used to be a dirty word to the average viewer. Normally educational, often stodgy, and more than a little cheesy, documentaries were the… Read More are less about your brand’s visual aesthetics and focus more on expressing your company’s core value or mission statement in a documentary-style format. This is usually accomplished through interviews with key company representatives, like founders, employees, or satisfied customers.Client: RFK - School for the Visual Arts & Humanities (LAUSD) To make a big impression, it’s important your mini-doc keeps it short and sweet. You want to highlight excellent sound bites that tell viewers exactly who you are, all while maintaining their attention. While feature-length documentaries have enough time to develop a full, three-act story, mini-docs don’t. They have to establish their story by quickly answering three crucial questions: what, why, and how. What is the focus of this video? Why should the viewer care about this? How does your subject work? This helps you get key pieces of information to your audience in a fun and interesting way.
Incorporate humor and emotion – It might surprise you, but videos that are downright funny can help with ad recall and brand awareness. Humans are designed to remember an encounter that sparks an emotional reaction, whether that’s fear, enjoyment, or humor. It makes sense—think about some ads that stick out to you: talking animals, laughing babies, epic travel ads, and other simple videos that might seem innocent enough, but are really doing an incredible job of capturing and retaining the attention of their audience.
The term "SEM" is used in varying applications. In some organizations, SEM refers exclusively to PPC (pay-per-click) paid search marketing (or even more specifically, Google AdWords). Other marketers use SEM as an umbrella term that describes all marketing efforts that influence performance in search engine listings, including organic results. A related term, "search marketing," can also be used to describe both paid and organic search.
Instead, place a laptop below the eye-line of the camera. Break the script into short paragraphs and record it section by section until you capture a great take of each. If you plan in advance when the final video will show b-roll (supplementary footage or screenshots), you can have your talent read those lines directly off the laptop like a voice over.
There are endless platforms for video marketing. YouTube, broadcast television, video boards and street marketing, you name it. The possibilities are endless. With a smartphone, consumers can access online video anytime, anywhere. The same is not true with traditional, paper marketing. With video, you can reach your audience wherever they are in a cost-effective way.
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Watch time and view-through rate are two of the most important metrics to measure engagement. These are the most absolute numbers that’ll give you an idea of how engaging your content is. Less absolute numbers include lifts in favorability and brand interest. You can also use things like comments and shares to measure engagement when you post your video on social media.

Another one of the benefits of SEM is that people who see your PPC ads are those most likely to want to buy your product or service. PPC ads require you to choose a geographic location and specific search queries to target. As a result, you can be sure that anyone who clicks on your ad is not arbitrarily surfing the web, but rather, is looking for your product or service and in a position to do so.
Around the world, 91 percent of consumers are likely to reward brands for authenticity and share the brand with friends and family, and 62 percent are likely to purchase from or show greater interest in purchasing from a brand that authentically expresses itself. Interestingly, U.S. consumers were less likely to build trust with new brands as compared to others globally, particularly the openness expressed by Asian consumers. For U.S.-based businesses marketing domestically, video content is the key to building trust.
Your first opportunity to delight comes directly after the purchase. Consider sending a thank you video to welcome them into the community or an onboarding video to get them rolling with their new purchase. Then, build out a library of educational courses or product training videos to cater to consumers who prefer self-service or simply want to expand their expertise.
This covers any type of marketing done for free by an influencer, including shoutouts on social media, product reviews, endorsements, mentions, and more. Many influencers are willing to help you distribute your content in exchange for something, maybe a reciprocal mention, a trial of your services, or an ongoing relationship. Think about what you’re willing to give for the promotion of your video. Depending on how much they can up your exposure, it just might be worth it.
In this new world of digital transparency brands have to be very thoughtful in how they engage with current and potential customers. Consumers have an endless amount of data at their fingertips especially through social media channels, rating and review sites, blogs, and more. Unless brands actively engage in these conversations they lose the opportunity for helping guide their brand message and addressing customer concerns.

Just like a customer testimonial or product review can help to build trust in your company, your brand, and your product, they can also help to boost engagement. Watching someone demonstrate how your product or service improved their efficiency or solved their problem is so much more believable (and memorable) than just reading an article about it.

Maintenance. Ongoing addition and modification of keywords and website con­tent are necessary to continually improve search engine rankings so growth doesn’t stall or decline from neglect. You also want to review your link strategy and ensure that your inbound and outbound links are relevant to your business. A blog can provide you the necessary structure and ease of content addition that you need. Your hosting company can typically help you with the setup/installation of a blog.

A breadcrumb is a row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the root page. Many breadcrumbs have the most general page (usually the root page) as the first, leftmost link and list the more specific sections out to the right. We recommend using breadcrumb structured data markup28 when showing breadcrumbs.
Another excellent guide is Google’s “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.” This is a free PDF download that covers basic tips that Google provides to its own employees on how to get listed. You’ll find it here. Also well worth checking out is Moz’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO,” which you’ll find here, and the SEO Success Pyramid from Small Business Search Marketing.
While Facebook’s main purpose isn’t for watching and sharing videos, the site is making a smart move by investing more in the medium. Facebook is a great place to share top-of-funnel video content that is worthy of being shared. Think about keeping video content here fairly short, attention-grabbing enough to prevent scrolling, and if possible, create your content so the message can be relayed and enjoyed even without sound. If you do this well, the site’s network of users essentially act like brand ambassadors, helping to disseminate your content for you.
Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Dutch (Belgium), English (Australia), English (Canada), English (New Zealand), English (South Africa), English (UK), English (US), French (Canada), French (France), Galician, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian (Bokmål), Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish (Argentina), Spanish (Chile), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Venezuela), Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.Sixty-five percent of business decision-makers visit a marketer’s website after viewing a branded video. It’s clear that quality and relevant video marketing content can dramatically improve your site’s SEO by driving people to your homepage. Additionally, video can enhance your conversion rates: HubSpot reports that 39% of business decision-makers contact a vendor after viewing a branded video.
FGM Internet Marketing, LLC is a digital marketing and web design company based in Columbia, SC. We have over a decade’s worth of experience working on local, national and international online marketing campaigns, but our passion is helping local businesses grow. FGM Internet Marketing’s suite of online marketing channels will make your business more visible on the web, increase traffic to your website, and convert this into leads and sales.
A good headline. Your headline should be compelling and direct, interesting but not so clever that the topic of the page isn’t still obvious. A compelling headline tells someone they’ve found what they’re looking for and encourages them to read on. Try to match your heading with a trigger word (i.e., why, why, how, or when) that matches the visitor’s intent.
This guide is designed for you to read cover-to-cover. Each new chapter builds upon the previous one. A core idea that we want to reinforce is that marketing should be evaluated holistically. What you need to do is this in terms of growth frameworks and systems as opposed to campaigns. Reading this guide from start to finish will help you connect the many moving parts of marketing to your big-picture goal, which is ROI.
We recently published an infographic on how powerful video will become. But the future has already arrived. This has been a full-on video revolution year for marketers. According to Wyzowl statistics, 63% of businesses have started using video content marketing. Out of those 82% of businesses feel video marketing is an important part of their strategy. Video is progressing rapidly and will reach new heights sooner than we think. This trend is fueled by 83% of businesses believing that video marketing gives them a good ROI.
The video follows one woman's relationship with running in reverse, from her running the Reebok-sponsored Spartan Race as a middle-aged woman, to running track in high school, all the way back to the day she was born. It's a great way for Reebok to communicate their brand mission of changing how people perceive and experience fitness at every age -- and of letting customers know they'll be there to cover their athletic gear needs throughout their lives.

Link text is the visible text inside a link. This text tells users and Google something about the page you're linking to. Links on your page may be internal—pointing to other pages on your site—or external—leading to content on other sites. In either of these cases, the better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for Google to understand what the page you're linking to is about.

Email marketing is the practice of nurturing leads and driving sales through email communications with your customers. Like social media, the goal is to remind users that you’re here and your product is waiting. Unlike social media, however, you can be a lot more aggressive with your sales techniques, as people expect that email marketing will contain offers, product announcements and calls to action.
You can confer some of your site's reputation to another site when your site links to it. Sometimes users can take advantage of this by adding links to their own site in your comment sections or message boards. Or sometimes you might mention a site in a negative way and don't want to confer any of your reputation upon it. For example, imagine that you're writing a blog post on the topic of comment spamming and you want to call out a site that recently comment spammed your blog. You want to warn others of the site, so you include the link to it in your content; however, you certainly don't want to give the site some of your reputation from your link. This would be a good time to use nofollow.
Inclusion in Google's search results is free and easy; you don't even need to submit your site to Google. Google is a fully automated search engine that uses web crawlers to explore the web constantly, looking for sites to add to our index. In fact, the vast majority of sites listed in our results aren't manually submitted for inclusion, but found and added automatically when we crawl the web. Learn how Google discovers, crawls, and serves web pages.3
Organic search (SEO): When you enter a keyword or phrase into a search engine like Google or Yahoo!, the organic results are displayed in the main body of the page.When your prospects search for information about your products and services, you want to rank highly in search engine results. By “optimizing” your site, you can improve your ranking for important search terms and phrases (“keywords”). You can also improve your rank by getting other important sites to link to yours.

In 2013, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Lens.com, Inc. v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc. that online contact lens seller Lens.com did not commit trademark infringement when it purchased search advertisements using competitor 1-800 Contacts' federally registered 1800 CONTACTS trademark as a keyword. In August 2016, the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against 1-800 Contacts alleging, among other things, that its trademark enforcement practices in the search engine marketing space have unreasonably restrained competition in violation of the FTC Act. 1-800 Contacts has denied all wrongdoing and is scheduled to appear before an FTC administrative law judge in April 2017.[29]

Moreover: if you don’t have to, don’t change your URLs. Even if your URLs aren’t “pretty,” if you don’t feel as though they’re negatively impacting users and your business in general, don’t change them to be more keyword focused for “better SEO.” If you do have to change your URL structure, make sure to use the proper (301 permanent) type of redirect. This is a common mistake businesses make when they redesign their websites.
Customers are often researching online and then buying in stores and also browsing in stores and then searching for other options online. Online customer research into products is particularly popular for higher-priced items as well as consumable goods like groceries and makeup. Consumers are increasingly using the Internet to look up product information, compare prices, and search for deals and promotions.[21]
Our backgrounds are as diverse as they come, bringing knowledge and expertise in business, finance, search marketing, analytics, PR, content creation, creative, and more. Our leadership team is comprised of successful entrepreneurs, business executives, athletes, military combat veterans, and marketing experts. The Executives, Directors, and Managers at IMI are all well-respected thought leaders in the space and are the driving force behind the company’s ongoing success and growth.

Content marketing is more than just blogging. When executed correctly, content including articles, guides (like this one), webinars, and videos can be powerful growth drivers for your business. Focus on building trust and producing amazing quality. And most of all, make sure that you’re capturing the right metrics. Create content to generate ROI. Measure the right results. This chapter will teach you how.

Like Dove, Always has been approaching their marketing by combining empowering messages with realistic -- as opposed to idealistic -- portrayals of their target audience. In their "Like a Girl" campaign, the company uses the famous insult to grab your attention -- and then change the conversation about what it means to run, throw, and fight "like a girl."
Social sharing and comments: If you’re on social media, you’re probably familiar with sharing and commenting. Social shares and comments are good indicators of how relevant your content is with your target audience. If a viewer watches your video and takes the time to share it with their network, you probably created a great piece of content. Social shares are also important because the more times your video is shared, the more it’ll be viewed. If your goal is to reach to reach a lot of people, social shares is good metric to track.
Our backgrounds are as diverse as they come, bringing knowledge and expertise in business, finance, search marketing, analytics, PR, content creation, creative, and more. Our leadership team is comprised of successful entrepreneurs, business executives, athletes, military combat veterans, and marketing experts. The Executives, Directors, and Managers at IMI are all well-respected thought leaders in the space and are the driving force behind the company’s ongoing success and growth.
Test and Listen. Think you can record the perfect voice over in just one take? Think again! Invest in a good pair of headphones and keep an eye on your audio quality throughout the recording process. It’s easier to get a new take of audio than trying to fix it during the editing process. We recommend running through your script a few times, especially the first few paragraphs, to ensure that your voice is fully warmed up. If you hear popping or hissing sounds, try standing further away from the mic or invest in a pop filter.